Hospital Execs Forecast Higher IT Spending

A third of respondents cite healthcare legislation and mandates as the biggest driver of healthcare costs. Alkire says providers are responding to the challenge of trying to keep costs down by looking for strategies to get to a "price point of zero."

"This means not purchasing a supply that isn't needed or admitting a patient that does not need hospital care," he says. "We continue to see a movement to standardize appropriate medical treatments, fueled by more detailed and plentiful clinical, operational, and supply data that can pinpoint providers that are outliers."

Other key survey findings include:

Almost 22% of respondents are in an accountable care organization, with 55% planning to be by the end of 2014.

Nearly 27% currently do not have plans to pursue the ACO model, and may choose other forms of clinical integration, such as bundled payment, care management fees, or pay-for-performance.

Reimbursement cuts were cited by 48% of respondents as having the greatest impact on their health systems, up 5% from last year and 10% from six months ago.

40% of respondents are projecting their capital spending to increase over the next 12 months as compared to last year, down slightly from 43% a year ago.

Almost 37% are projecting a capital spending decrease based on the same criteria, up from 35% in spring 2012.